Superbowl today but we turn to that other venerable US institution – William S Burroughs! Today would have been/is Burroughs’ birthday – He would have been 98 today. We’ll turn you over, as we have done in the past, to the incomparable Reality Studio (“a William S Burroughs Community” – the William Burroughs community) for more (plenty more) Burroughs resources (with a tip of the hat also to the William S Burroughs Archive You Tube Channel (2016 – no longer functioning), and a wealth of recordings, and other (audio) materials, readily available, here)
Howard Brookner’s 1985 Burroughs The Movie is also, it should be pointed out, essential viewing. Commissioner of Sewers (1991) is similarly available, in its entirety, on line.
The BBC 1997 Arena documentary, filmed shortly after he died, is well worth watching.
And not forgetting Yony Leyser’s recent (2010) documentary, A Man Within
Burroughs’ Paris Review interview may be accessed here.
& here’s a link to the valuable Collected Interviews (put out some years ago by Semiotexte and now available from MIT).
& to conclude with, a little spot of vintage Burroughs – here‘s his film made in 1966 (with Antony Balch) on the “Cut-Ups” (heads up to Brion Gysin on this one)
Rub Out The Words: The Letters of William S Burroughs 1959-1974 will be published next week (more on that next week), the follow-up to 1995’s The Letters of William S Burroughs 1945-1959.
Birthday Greetings, Bill, wherever you are.